Corn ucopia. 
141 
Thy soul before was strengthened, that thy 
doom, 
To show thy virtue she has larger room : 
Yet $ure, if every artery were broke, 
Thou wouldst find strength for such another 
stroke. 
And now I leave thee unto death and 
fame, 
Which lives to shake ambition at thy name, 
And if it were no sin, the court by it, 
Wou’d hourly swear, before the favourite, 
Farewell—for thy brave sake we shall not 
send 
Henceforth, commander, enemies to defend, 
Nor will it ever our just monarch please 
To keep an admiral to lose the seas. 
Farewell—undaunted stand, and joy to be 
Of public sorrow the epitome. 
Let the Duke’s name solace and crown thy 
thrall, 
All we in him did sutler, thou for all; 
And I dare boldly write, as thou dar’st 
die, 
Stout Felton , England's ransom, here does 
lie. 
The above, by the date, appears to 
have been one of the earliest effusions 
of Butler’s muse, demonstrating great 
vigour of thought and diction, accom¬ 
panied by the usual defect of early 
attempts, obscurity, and the want of a 
sufficient connecting and regulating 
power in the mind. It farther appears, 
an expectation then prevailed with the 
public that Felton w ould be put to the 
torture , according to the demand of the 
royal martyr, that was to be the deci¬ 
sion of the judges. 
AN ANT HILL. 
In crossing a field lately, says a cor¬ 
respondent, I felt my foot suddenly 
sink into a heap of soft earth; an inci¬ 
dent which, though it might appear 
harmless and indifferent, w 7 as fraught 
with consequences the most alarming 
and destructive. The unguarded step 
was followed by the slaughter of incal¬ 
culable numbers, and the awful con¬ 
vulsions of a whole empire ! It was a 
nest of ants ; and the measures pursued 
by tlie citizens on this calamitous occa¬ 
sion w 7 ere so curiously interesting as to 
arrest my attention for a whole hour. 
As soon as the first terrors occasioned 
by the shock had subsided, I could sur¬ 
mise that an express w as dispatched to 
the residence of the king, to acquaint 
him w ith particulars, and in less than 
two minutes he made his appearance on 
the scene of distress and ruin. IIew T as 
a fine looking fellow 7 , and though I 
could perceive his majesty was much 
agitated at this unexpected disaster, 
yet he convoked this senate without de¬ 
lay to deliberate upon the best means 
of retrieving the loss. There w r as a 
very full attendance of members, and 
one above all seemed to attract extra¬ 
ordinary attention, who was unques¬ 
tionably the Nestor of the trade. This 
gallant officer rushed out of the assem¬ 
bly, galloped through thick and thin 
into the city, upset three or four old 
females vdth eggs on their backs, 
knocked down a fat pismire, and dart¬ 
ed down a narrow lane that I afterwards 
fourd led to the corn-market; there I 
lost him. 
What a fine field w 7 as opened to the 
philosophical and contemplative per¬ 
sons to w 7 hom I recommend the further 
study and application of the subject. 
NOVELTIES OF FOREIGN LITERATURE. 
OBSERVATIONS on the ENGLISH UNI¬ 
VERSITIES, from the North Ameri¬ 
can Review , Jan. 1821. 
HE English universities are en¬ 
titled to respect, as most splendid 
depositories of literary treasures ; and 
w 7 ere it but in the libraries which their 
halls contain, they could not be denied 
to have paid their debt of utility to 
each of the transitory generations 
which arise, flourish, and decay be¬ 
neath their ancient walls. 
They are entitled to respect, for the 
labours of a long unbroken line of 
learned men and accomplished scho¬ 
lars, who have made, and ever will 
make the names of Oxford and Cam¬ 
bridge dear, when the English lan¬ 
guage shall be Avhat the Latin is now 7 . 
They are entitled to respect, on the 
grounds on which, as w 7 e have stated, 
they often claim it, viz. as a suitable 
abode for the aristocracy of the coun¬ 
try, during the interval between the 
restraints of the school, and the calls 
of life. It has, it must have, a salu¬ 
tary effect on the future character of 
this important class of the community, 
thus to bring its members, from a score 
of family factions, together; to unite 
them, at least for a year or tw 7 o, as 
members of one fraternity, before they 
plunge into the remorseless rivalries of 
government and life; and even though 
